CD Review:  AM String Band, "Take Root"

CD Review by Jeff Trippe

The AM String Band (http://www.amstringband.com), who come all the way from Helena, Montana, will ramble through Maine over the next couple of weeks, traveling in support of their recent release, Take Root!

This young trio marches under the “old time” flag, as more and more folk musicians seem to do these days when pressed to categorize what they play.  In this case, Johanna Davis (fiddle, banjo, vocals), Adam Nordell (guitar, bass, foot percussion, vocals) and Michael Willing (viola, fiddle, voice) really do seem to have a competent grasp of the American old time spirit, drive, and spontaneity, although their disk also includes Celtic tunes and a couple of individual vocal numbers by Nordell.

With all of the great traditional fiddlers and other string musicians around all parts of the country (and Maine certainly has its share), one might reasonably ask, “So, what makes this group worth listening to?”  I think it’s their dive-right-in approach to the instrumentals; they kick things off with “North Carolina Breakdown” and “Seneca Square Dance” and it is immediately clear that these three folks have spent some late nights playing together (even though their promo materials say that they only decided they were a band last January).  Then, even over a far-ranging set of songs, from the aforementioned Celtic adventures to the more indulgent “Snow Day Waltz,” the band’s sound is cohesive and lively.  Thus, the old approach proves true once again – keep it simple, do what you do best, and things will turn out all right in the end.

To me, Johanna Davis, originally from Round Pond, Maine, is especially intriguing.  Her singing, fiddling, and banjo-ing seem to emerge right from the misty southern mountains where many of these tunes were preserved.  I don’t care where she learned them – she delivers them in the simple, heartfelt, and unselfconscious manner that would make Mother Maybelle herself have to get in on those harmonies.  That’s mainly what it’s about with this music:  does it make you want to sing or dance?  If so, then it’s right.

Still, some purists might argue:  “Scollay’s Reel” (sometimes called “Scully’s Reel”) is Celtic, and therefore, “it ain’t old time.”  All right, then, let’s talk tune origins for a moment.  Also on this record is “Gravel Road,” clearly Irish, according to all the ‘sources,’ but the band has coupled it with “Elzic’s Farewell,” a tune probably composed by a fellow named Harvey Elswick in the 1800s, in Virginia, and recorded in the 1920s by the great fiddler Clark Kessinger of West Virginia, and yet the pairing is seamless.  This is exactly why even commercially successful American acoustic artists continue to play with and learn from groups such as the Chieftains, and vice versa.  The British Isles and America are forever married, in this regard.

Oddly, though, the best tune on the album, the one that sticks in your ears, was written fairly recently (1988) by Paul Gitlitz.  If “Flying Home to Shelley” is not the band’s signature tune, they should immediately adopt it as such.  And speaking of contemporary writers, the trio has also included “Horace Hainesworth,” by Larry Unger, who is well-known among instrumentalists for his ability to write melodies that sound as if they come straight out of the 19th century.

The band’s singing is unpretentious.  They have a nice go at “Say Darlin’ Say,” which I used to have on an LP by Tommy Jarrell, and the lonesome “Meet Me in the Moonlight,” from the Stanley Brothers’ library.

You’ll have a chance to go and see the AM String Band play live in various venues around Maine over the next month or so.  Seems they received an arts grant in their home state and also spent a month together at the Montana Artists Refuge (which is wonderful, but my only question is, do we have a Maine Artists Refuge, and where do I sign up?) and are now proficient enough together to hold their own in concert.  They’re young; from the looks of their CD’s cover, they are without gray hair or wrinkles to speak of.  Besides – and this might sound sexist, but so be it – who wouldn’t want to go see a tall attractive blond play fiddle tunes? (And I’m not talking about Michael.)

Here’s the AM String Band’s schedule for their tour of Maine:

Sept 22…………...Round Top Barn - 7:00 PM - Damariscotta

Sept 24…………...Barncastle Inn - 7:00 - Blue Hill

Sept. 25…………..College of the Atlantic - 8:00 PM, Bar Harbor

Sept. 26…………..Lompoc Café (Bar Harbor)

Sept. 27…………..Patty Murphy’s (Bangor)

Sept. 30…………..Slainte (Portland)